Majid Al Futtaim

Majid Al Futtaim started in 1992 when its founder, Mr. Majid Al Futtaim, set out to build shopping, entertainment and leisure destinations in the region. The group now operates in more than 15 markets. The best-known assets are Mall of the Emirates, the City Centre malls (Deira, Sharjah, Mirdif, Me’aisem, Al Shindagha and others), Ski Dubai, VOX Cinemas, Magic Planet and the Carrefour franchise for the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia.

The real estate business sits under Majid Al Futtaim Properties. The group has built five mixed-use communities through what it calls “the art of placemaking”, housing more than 2,500 families across the UAE, Oman and Lebanon. Outside Dubai those communities are Al Zahia (Sharjah), Al Mouj and Tilal Al Irfan (Oman) and Waterfront City (Lebanon).

Head office is at City Centre Deira Complex, Tower 1, 10th Floor. Tilal Al Ghaf sales enquiries go through 800 GHAF (4423).

The group was founded in Dubai in 1992. It spent its first two decades on retail and leisure. Tilal Al Ghaf in Dubai was Majid Al Futtaim’s first real estate venture in the UAE, followed by Al Zahia in Sharjah. The first Tilal Al Ghaf sales (the Elan townhouses) opened on 30 June 2020, with construction starting the following day.

So while the company is over 30 years old, its Dubai residential track record is about six years old. That matters for how you read its delivery history below.

Four things, all interlinked:

1. Shopping malls. Mall of the Emirates, City Centre Deira, City Centre Mirdif, City Centre Me’aisem and City Centre Al Shindagha are all in Dubai.
2. Leisure and entertainment. Ski Dubai, VOX Cinemas and Magic Planet family centres.
3. Hotels. Kempinski Mall of the Emirates, Sheraton Mall of the Emirates, Pullman City Centre Deira and Pullman City Centre Residences.
4. Residential communities. Tilal Al Ghaf, Ghaf Woods, and the Dubai South master community announced in May 2026.

The residential communities are built to plug into the retail and leisure side. Tilal Al Ghaf has its own Majid Al Futtaim retail strip, and DISTRIKT, a retail and dining neighbourhood concept, inside both Tilal Al Ghaf and Ghaf Woods.

Majid Al Futtaim sells two very different product lines in Dubai.

Majid Al Futtaim villas, townhouses and mansions at Tilal Al Ghaf

Tilal Al Ghaf covers 3 million square meters off Hessa Street (D61) and Sheikh Zayed Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan Street (D54), next to Jumeirah Golf Estates and Victory Heights. The center is Lagoon Al Ghaf, a swimmable lagoon with white-sand beaches. The community has nearly 500,000 square meters of parks and open space and 18 km of walking trails. Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai is inside the community.

The product range is townhouses, villas and mansions from 3 to 8 bedrooms. Sub-communities and current pricing:

Every Tilal Al Ghaf project is sold out from the developer. New buyers are buying resale from existing owners, not from Majid Al Futtaim directly.

Ghaf Woods is in Dubailand beside Global Village, off Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road (E311). Majid Al Futtaim launched it on 5 June 2024 as Dubai’s first “forest living” community. The site is planted with more than 35,000 trees and is designed to run up to 5°C cooler than the city centre with 20% cleaner air. It is made up of 11 clusters of low-rise apartment buildings.

Current projects:

Ghaf Woods 1-bedroom apartments run from 804 to 937 sq ft.

As of August 2026, five Tilal Al Ghaf sub-communities are ready:

• Elan (3 and 4-bed townhouses, 2,152 and 2,354 sq ft) - delivered November 2023, three years and five months after sales opened.
• Aura (3 and 4-bed twin villas with rooftop sky suites) - 100% complete.
• Harmony (4 and 5-bed villas with garden suites) - 100% complete.
• Alaya (4 to 6-bed villas) - ready.
• Elysian Mansions (5 to 6-bed lagoon, hilltop and park-lane mansions) - ready.

Full completion of the community is expected in 2027.

No Ghaf Woods building has been delivered yet. The first handovers (Serra, Cilia) are scheduled for 2027.

Outside residential, Majid Al Futtaim’s Dubai delivery record includes Mall of the Emirates, City Centre Deira, City Centre Mirdif, City Centre Me’aisem and City Centre Al Shindagha, plus the hotels attached to them. The Pavilion at Tilal Al Ghaf won a 2022 BREEAM award for sustainable design.

Newest first:

• Dubai South master community (announced 19 May 2026). A 22 million sq ft mixed-use community valued at AED 62 billion, near Al Maktoum International Airport, anchored by a large shopping mall. No unit prices, plans or dates have been released yet.
• Distrikt at Ghaf Woods (delivery Q3 2029). 1 to 3-bed apartments and duplexes from AED 1.536 million, with two payment plan options.
• Capria East and West at Ghaf Woods (Q2 2029). From AED 1.2 million and AED 1.5 million.
• Maravelle at Ghaf Woods. Wellness-focused residences in the inner circle of the community.
• Bo Monde at Tilal Al Ghaf (Q4 2027). 13 lagoon-front mansions from AED 32 million.
• Serenity Mansions Waterfront (Q4 2027). 5 to 7-bed mansions from AED 27.1 million.

The one Majid Al Futtaim project old enough to have a five-year history is Elan at Tilal Al Ghaf. Comparing its launch price with recorded DLD sales gives the clearest picture of growth.

Those are launch-to-resale figures, so they include the premium that off-plan buyers earned by taking construction risk in 2020. A buyer entering today at resale prices is starting from a very different base.

Current market data on Tilal Al Ghaf:

• Ready villas: average sale price AED 14.44 million (245 DLD sales in 12 months); average 4-bed villa AED 8.41 million; average 3-bed listing AED 3.6 million.
• Off-plan villas: DLD off-plan villa transaction prices up 16% in the last six months; asking prices up 10% over the same period.
• Listings: average listed price AED 10.3 million, range AED 3.4 million to AED 90.1 million; 363 sales in 12 months; average sale price down 8.2% year on year.
• Ready sales trend: minus 6% according to DLD.

Read together: strong long-run growth from launch, an active off-plan segment, and a softer ready-resale segment over the past year.

Yield figures for Tilal Al Ghaf villas:

• All villas: 6.21%
• 3-bed villas: 5.87%
• 4-bed villas: 6.18%
• 4-bed villas in Alaya: 6.85%

A more conservative estimate for Elan is about 5%, with a 4-bed expected to rent for roughly AED 190,000 a year. DLD rental data shows 463 new villa contracts in 12 months at an average of AED 463,691, with asking rents up 1% over six months and transaction rents down 2%.

Ghaf Woods has no rental history yet because nothing has been handed over.

Payment plans differ by project. Examples:

• Elan: 5% at launch, 45% during construction, 10% on handover, 40% post-handover.
• Alaya: 10% at launch, 45% during construction, 5% on handover, 40% post-handover.
• Serra at Ghaf Woods: 10 / 50 / 40.
• Capria West: 10 / 40 / 50.
• Lanai Islands and Elysian Mansions: 50/50.

All Majid Al Futtaim projects in Dubai are freehold, and the government fee is 4%.

Families who want a lagoon or beach lifestyle without living on the coast. Tilal Al Ghaf is the only inland Dubai community with a swimmable lagoon, sandy beaches and a British curriculum school (RGS Guildford Dubai) inside the gates. With 463 rental contracts a year, there is a working tenant market for family villas.

Buyers who value a single master developer. Every home in Tilal Al Ghaf and Ghaf Woods is built by Majid Al Futtaim. There are no third-party plots, so finishes, landscaping and amenities are consistent across the community.

Long-hold investors. The Elan numbers above show what patience did for 2020 buyers. The developer’s own group owns the malls, cinemas and hotels around its communities, which gives it a reason to keep the retail and leisure side running well after handover.

Buyers chasing the highest rental yield. Tilal Al Ghaf villas return 5.9% to 6.9%, with conservative estimates closer to 5%. Apartment districts in Dubai regularly return more. If yield is the goal, this is a lifestyle-first, yield-second product.

Anyone who needs to move in within the next 12 months at Ghaf Woods. The earliest handovers are Q3 2027 (Serra) and the latest are Q3 2029 (Distrikt). You are buying into a construction site for two to three years.

Investors looking for developer launch prices at Tilal Al Ghaf. Every project there is sold out from the developer. You are buying resale, and the year-on-year figures (minus 6% to minus 8.2% on ready sales) show the resale market has cooled from its peak.

Buyers who want a short-term flip. Most Majid Al Futtaim payment plans back-load 40% to 50% of the price to handover or post-handover. That structure suits owners who plan to live in the home or hold it, not those planning to exit before completion.

Buyers with a budget under AED 3 million who want a villa. The cheapest Tilal Al Ghaf resale townhouse is AED 3.4 million. Below that, the only Majid Al Futtaim option is a Ghaf Woods apartment.

Anyone who needs a metro station or a coastal address. Tilal Al Ghaf and Ghaf Woods are car-dependent Dubailand communities. Dubai Marina is about 20 minutes away and Downtown about 30 minutes away by road.

Entry-level Dubailand buyers who prefer a big-name developer. Ghaf Woods apartments from AED 1.2 million put Majid Al Futtaim within reach of buyers who cannot afford a Tilal Al Ghaf villa.

Ultra-high-net-worth buyers. Lanai Islands (13 island mansions from AED 69 million), Bo Monde (13 mansions from AED 32 million) and Serenity Mansions are among the most expensive villa products in Dubailand.